DO NOT TRACK feature to be added to Firefox, and Google Chrome

User Rating: / 1PoorBest

Last month, the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection proposed a "Do Not Track" tool to curb concerns over personalized or behavioral advertising. David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection last December that the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising, known as behavioral advertising, holds value for consumers because it supports content and services on the Web and delivers more personalized ads, according to the FTC.

The FTC hoped the tool might be similar to the system that deterred telemarketers from causing so many headaches the "Do Not Call" registry, but offered very few technical details.

While the Do Not Call has been great for consumers the Do Not Track feature may be harder to implement. Unlike "Do Not Call," which relies on unique telephone numbers, "Do Not Track" could not depend on similar identifiers, as IP addresses are constantly changing. Google announced an extension called "Keep My Opt-Outs" for Chrome users "who aren't comfortable with personalization of the ads they see on the Web." Google wrote "We recognize that some users are uncomfortable with the personalization of ads that they see on the web and we offer many levels of control over this personalization. Two years ago we launched two ground-breaking innovations, the Ads Preferences Manager (http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/) and the industry’s first persistent cookie opt-out. Now we’re giving users who don’t want their ads personalized the same permanent, one-click control for advertising-related cookies across our industry," Advertisers may not be happy about this but many people find these tracking devices more than a little annoying.

We will see how well it really works when it comes out but you can be sure before to long there will be yet another way that they will find ways to track and annoy us.